Henry & Me, Video Blog #1 from Sarah Nichols on Vimeo.
Henry Halloween Mask
Fake Henry, Real Henry
Happy Halloween! So, for this year's mask, I decided to make a Henry Head. I used cardboard, tape, newspaper, balloons, gesso, paint and construction paper. I didn't make a step-by-step instructional, but you can see photos of my progress here:
Here's me building the form for the head from balloons and a beer box.
Skip ahead a few steps to after the first time I paper mached it, with the help of David and Allison.
Now I've taped on the giant cardboard ears.
Here it is after I've paper mached the ears to the head.
Here's another picture of the Final Product, featuring Rainbow Brite.
Finally, here are links to masks from years past....
2008 Rosie the Robot from The Jetsons Mask
2007 Donkey Head Mask
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Currently listening to Hail to the Thief, by Radiohead
Favorite Video of the Week, Vol. 1, No.10
AS ONE from makoto yabuki on Vimeo.
So, this week's video comes from Drawn yet again. I think at least 6 of the 10 videos I've posted come from there. They have excellent content.
I love Yabuki's videos. They're very architectural and yet very organic. Also, the music is great. Check out his Vimeo page for more...
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Currently listening to The Sounds of The Sounds of Science by Yo La Tengo
New Website!
www.pocheco.us
I have updated my portfolio website. Check it out!
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Currently listening to Embryonic by The Flaming Lips
Favorite Video of the Week, Vol. 1, No.9
Pictorial Webster's: Inspiration to Completion from John Carrera on Vimeo.
Book making porn. I love books, and this is great process to see. Wish I could afford one, at $4500...
Glad it's Friday. It's been a wild week, what, with a dentist telling me I need a root canal (which is happening Monday), yelled at at work for non-work related stuff, and finishing up my Henry Halloween mask, which I will post here soon.
I am looking forward to a fun and mostly relaxing weekend with David. We're going to go see Whip It (finally!), going to watch some Dave Chappelle Show, going to a wedding and a Halloween party. Yay weekend.
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Currently WISH I was listening to Them Crooked Vultures.
(Kind Of) New Drawing
ere's a drawing I did for David. Kind of a shitty photo with the glare on the glass, but you get the idea. Drew it last month. Haven't sat down and drawn anything in a while, it felt pretty good. I have more illustration board, so I'm thinking of doing some more drawing projects.This one is a collage of architecture I photographed while living in Boston. I rather enjoyed layering the buildings. I am thinking of doing more repetitious-type drawings. I am considering doing one of rabbits next.
For the moment, I'm working on my new Halloween costume, which is a paper mache mask of Henry. Photos to come soon.
Size: 11x17 inches
Materials: Black ink (V7) on cold press illustration board
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Currently listening to HEALTH.
All Beef Patty w/ Special Sauce
Here's my official league photo, where I'm looking particularly carniverous. All Beef Patty, 100%, Fabulous Sin City Rollergirls.
Photo by the supremely talented Radiant Photography.
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Currently listening to Calexico.
Game Tonight + Fresh Meat!
Have a roller derby game tonight. 8pm at the Las Vegas Roller Hockey Center. If you live in Vegas, come! Also, here's the flier for our next game in November....
Favorite Video of the Week, Vol. 1, No.8
ardboard! My favorite part of this is when the gray pill bug at 0:43 falls on his back walking along the brick wall.I can't believe how fast this week went! It was just Sunday, now it's Friday again. I'm in a good mood today. David and I are going to see Whip It tonight. Roller Derby game tomorrow, and book club on Sunday! Good weekend coming up, yay!
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Currently listening to O'Death
Thirty
So, I turned 30 today.
Woke to my radio alarm sometime around 7:30, feeling not-quite-settled in my new room, with vestiges from my youth of that old birthday excitement flitting around all fire-fly like in my stomach. I felt good, and, for a nice change, pretty; thanks to my sister, who had just dyed my hair a darker shade of red, and trimmed the ends in time for my birthday.
It was a pretty regular day at work, although I did feel kind of special because Leah came to pick me up for lunch. I chose Robertos, the classic and beloved Mexican restaurant. Caitlin came with us, and we had burritos and sodas.
I received some flowers from Allison, in the picture above. They're pretty. And I got lots of nice calls, texts and emails from friends and family to wish me a happy birthday. I couldn't have wishe for more love, really.
After dinner, sweet David met me at my house, gave me some sweet birthday gifts, and we went out to dinner at Gordon Biersch.
During the course of our dinner conversation, David asked me the inevitable question you ask someone when they cross a major age milestone: "Do you feel any different?"
I think mostly people expect you to answer "No" to that question, to which they add that age is 'just a number'; but the truth is, I do feel a little different.
I think it's because I've always forgiven myself certain flaws, excesses and indulgences under the umbrella of the 20s, like rebelliousness is to teenagers or temper tantrums are to children.
I look back on this past decade as one in which I did my best to channel Dionysus and his Hedonism in to every possible aspect of my life. I never went to far down the rabbit hole, although I took my pleasures where I could get them: sleeping in a little later than I should, having one-too-many beers on a week night, eating that extra cookie, as if these little gratifications were how I kept my child-like wonder alive.
Like, with each moment I drank in the sunlight a little longer when I should have been working, or spent a little too much time loitering on the Internet when I should have been cleaning, are all part of that cliche I often think of, which is to "Stop and Smell the Roses". Trite, yes, but wise, and ultimately, much easier on the mind and body when the alternative is getting up on time, cleaning the coffee pot right after you drink the last cup, instead of before you need to use it next time, and thinking ahead of what you might need to buy to feed yourself a square meal at dinnertime.
Not like those little work ethics are immediately and without fail going to replace my tendency towards laziness or desire to eat take out or drink myself into a stupor with the advent of my 10,958th day on being alive (yeah, that counts leap days, too). Rather, I am willing, no, wanting myself to grow out of these habits. And I've sort of used my 30th birthday as a cap for these things.
For instance, when I was still smoking, I'd promised that I'd quit on my 30th birthday, if I couldn't find a good excuse to quit before then. And luckily enough, I did somehow manage to quit at 28, nearly two years ago. But that's the kind of limit I've set for myself on all my silly excesses. That 30 was the age that I'd finally shed the skin of my childhood...I no longer have the craziness of the 20s to hide behind, I'm now a full-fledged adult and I should now act like one.
Ugh, re-reading all of this makes it sound like I'm just going to slide right into boring middle age, although, to be honest, I hope quite the opposite will happen: Laziness and indulgence, I have learned, impede one's ability to actually get anything done. Why draw a picture, when I could get drunk? Why learn a new skill when I could just watch TV? Why take a walk in the morning when I could sleep and extra hour? I want this decade of my life to be about achieving, about coming into my own and really working to express my talents and interests. Maybe now I'll be free from my lifestyle of every-weekend hangovers to finally start that painting, learn that instrument, write that book.
This is the time to be doing something with my life, instead of life just doing something to me, as I have been allowing it to for such a long time. Not that I begrudge those years, no, I believe them not only beneficial but necessary for a full life. I fully believe that you need a decade of observance, partaking and fully-preventable, repeated mistakes to prepare you for success in adulthood. It almost feels like I've finally mastered life without my parents, and now it's time to stop fucking around and get busy.
I suppose this change has been coming for a while in my life, and I've been wratcheting myself up year by year as the day comes closer. I don't think it will be immediate, this change from lazy kid to productive adult, but, now, at age 30, I don't see any alternative but to start moving toward that point.
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Currently listening to Embryonic by the Flaming Lips.
